During the final interim meeting of the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, lawmakers discussed mandate relief and innovation, the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) program, and educator misconduct. Members of a working group of policy stakeholders, which included ATPE, agreed to send 20 recommendations to be considered during the 86th legislative session next year. ATPE member Aletha Williams testified on the need for mentors in the teaching profession in order to help retain employees. The committee also discussed implementation of Senate Bill (SB) 7, an educator misconduct bill passed last session, and discussed the possibility of creating a “Do Not Hire Registry” for educators who have previously engaged in misconduct. ATPE Lobbyist Kate Kuhlmann provides more information in this blog post.

School finance commission working group meeting, Nov. 27, 2018.

The Texas Commission on Public School Finance working group on revenue met Tuesday to finalize its recommendations before they’re presented to the full commission. The group debated the merits of recapture, often referred to more commonly as “Robin Hood,” the mechanism by which the state redistributes funds from property-rich districts to property-poor districts. While Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), who chairs the group, expressed his desire to do away with recapture, others such as Rep. Diego Bernal (D -San Antonio) and Rep. Ken King (R – Canadian) questioned how equity could be preserved without the program or how Texas could implement a “sharing” system among recaptured funds. Ultimately the working group voted to advance the governor’s tax cap plan, which would increase funding for schools that improve outcomes and cap property tax growth at 2.5 percent, as well as Bettencourt’s recapture “sharing” plan to the full commission.

The full commission is meeting today and will meet at least twice more in December to receive recommendations from the working groups and finalize its report to the legislature. A more detailed account of Tuesday’s meeting can be found in this post by ATPE Lobbyist Mark Wiggins.

According to data from the Texas Secretary of State, more than 7 million registered voters in the state did not participate in the midterm elections earlier this month. Members of the Texas Educators Vote coalition, including ATPE, are working to change that.The group aims to create a culture of voting in schools and communities and demonstrate how rewarding and easy it can be to for ordinary people to perform their civic duty. You can help their efforts by participating in this voter registration survey that asks educators to share details on their involvement in get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts and, specifically, efforts to help eligible students become registered to vote. The survey provides information to the Texas Civil Rights Project, which creates a map of high schools where students are registered to vote. Submissions must be completed by 5 pm on Friday, December 7.

Members of the ATPE lobby team had the privilege of meeting today with a delegation from Armenia to discuss education issues, including school funding, recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, and the role of educator associations in advancing the education profession.

The group is visiting the United States as part of the U.S. State Department’s Visitor Leadership Program, which fosters citizen-to-citizen diplomacy for emerging leaders and coordinates opportunities for cross-cultural sharing between dignitaries from over 90 countries. The program was formed shortly after WWII and boasts such famous alumni as Tony Blair, Anwar Sadat, Margaret Thatcher, Nicolas Sarkozy, Indira Gandhi, and others.

During their visit to Texas, the education experts from Armenia also met with representatives of the Texas Education Agency and visited local schools. Other cities they will visit during their trip to the U.S. include San Antonio, plus Pensacola, Florida, Cleveland, Ohio, Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC. Representing ATPE during today’s meeting were Governmental Relations Director Jennifer Mitchell and lobbyists Monty Exter and Kate Kuhlmann.